The Acting Governor of Ondo State, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on Thursday presented a budget proposal of £384.533 billion for the 2024 fiscal year, tagged “Budget of Economic Resilience,” to the State House of Assembly.
The 2024 budget proposal is higher than the total projected budget outlay for the 2023 fiscal year, which was £275,979,184 billion.
According to him, £212,014,859,647.00 billion was budgeted for capital expenditure, while the remaining £172,518 billion is for recurrent expenditure.
Aiyedatiwa, while presenting the budget to the lawmakers during the plenary sitting presided over by the Speaker of the House, Olamide Oladiji, said the Infrastructural Development sector has the highest budget proposal.
He explained that infrastructural development takes the highest chunk with £95,482,176,340.36, representing 24.8 percent, followed by Public Finance, which has £82,413,990,850.80, representing 21.4 percent.
He disclosed that the 2024 Budget Proposal is prepared on the projection of the 2024-2026 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as required by the Ondo State Fiscal Responsibility Law of 2017.
The Acting governor said: “the current national and global economic realities point to the reason why we must consciously and programmatically rearrange our fiscal priorities to target the growth drivers of our economy so as to quickly fix and reflate the economy, to keep it afloat.
“We are aware of the negative impacts of fuel subsidy removal and floating exchange rate on the people. All these are put into consideration while projecting for expenditure in this Budget. We have made a reasonable increase in the Personnel Estimates to cover the imminent wage increase for workers.
“We will also continue to roll out palliative measures to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal. The impact of climate change is another issue we have resolved to tackle headlong in the coming year. As we all noticed, the duration and intensity of rainfall relatively increased this year and produced huge run-offs and flooding in many local government areas.”
Giving the breakdown, he explained that “The breakdown of the revenue is as follows: Statutory Allocation – £45,367,453,580; Independent Revenue £33,039,332,950; Value Added Tax – £30,301,829,040; Mineral Derivations – £30,524,211,875; Other FAAC/Excess Crude Revenue – £100,439,986,003; Grants – £43,700,000,000; Other Capital Receipts – £25,100,000,000 and Financing – £76,060,186,552.
“The current national and global economic realities point to reason why we must consciously and programmatically rearrange our fiscal priorities to target the growth drivers of our economy so as to quickly fix and reflate the economy, to keep it afloat. We are aware of the negative impacts of fuel subsidy removal and floating exchange rate on the people.
“All these are put into consideration while projecting for expenditure in this Budget. We have made a reasonable increase in the Personnel Estimates to cover the imminent wage increase for workers. We will also continue to roll out palliative measures to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.
In the expenditure projection, he said recurrent expenditure encompassing Salaries and Wages will take £59,211,247,665.00; Overheads, £42,172,446,600.00; Debt Servicing, £16,316,930,000.00; Grants and Contributions, £14,547,476,300.00; for Social Contribution and Social Benefits, £19,064,602,824.00, Statutory Transfers will take; £21,205,436,964.00 and in the capital expenditure, the capital estimates is £211,014,859,647.00.
He maintained that the current administration will pursue a policy stance that will entrench efficient spending, curb waste, engender inclusivity, and enable excellent service delivery as part of the administration to fulfill the aims and objectives of the 2024 budget proposal.
Aiyedatiwa hinted that with the resources available to the state government, Akeredolu’s administration has continued to pursue its developmental agenda in areas of priority and the government has been able to record modest achievements across the board in various thematic areas of the Redeemed agenda.
Receiving the budget, the Speaker, Hon. Olamide Oladiji, commended the Akeredolu-led administration in the state for giving priority to all sectors to ensure all-round development in the state.
He assured that the budget would be sent to the appropriate quarters, saying the lawmakers would do the needful for thorough and speedy passage of the proposed budget estimates into law.